by Lauri Campbell

At Heartbeat International we believe strongly that one of the six major responsibilities for the Board of Directors is to Nurture the people of the organization.  

Boards Nurture their teams in two ways. First, by creating a culture of servant leadership. It’s especially important that they model servant leadership within the leadership team: with fellow Board members and the Executive Director. 

Second, by providing professional growth opportunities and support for themselves, the Executive Director and staff.

In John we see Jesus teaching the disciples how they can demonstrate their love for Him.

“‘Do you love Me?’ And he (Peter) said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love you,’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep’” (John 21:17b).

In Heartbeat’s Governing Essentials manual, Peggy Hartshorn writes, “The Board’s authority over the organization, its role of stewardship, comes from the Lord. The Board “feeds” the organization, like Jesus instructed His disciples to feed those He put under their care. Jesus made them shepherds over His sheep.”

The Board is responsible to see that the organization has what it needs to develop in a healthy way. This is the calling of God on Christian Boards—steward and shepherd the team as unto the Lord.

As a board member for many years I understood the first part of my Nurture responsibility almost instinctively. I knew how important it was to create a culture of servant leadership and to interact with my fellow board members and the Executive Director from a place of humility and service.That’s what Jesus modeled and I had seen this lived out in my home and in church life.

Unfortunately, my understanding of our responsibility to Nurture the team did not extend to include professional development.

I saw it as a luxury we could not afford.  

Boy was I wrong! Turns out it's really quite the opposite. Development is an investment we cannot afford to overlook!

When I later became the Executive Director myself it took me a couple of years but I finally learned the value of investing in continuing education and training for the Board, myself and the staff.

When our Board received Heartbeat’s Governing Essentials training and later engaged a Heartbeat Strategic Planning expert our growth and strength as an organization and team grew. We could see the fruit of those professional development investments. Giving increased, the budget got larger, client visits increased, our number of staff positions grew and our mission of reaching the abortion minded gained some much needed focusing.

The investment of training and development pays off immeasurably. When people are encouraged in their work, strengths and gifts to do their best, they naturally work harder to do a good job and we saw this play out in our ministry.

Investing in professional development tells people that you care and you want to see them excel at their jobs. Conversely, neglecting their training and development often leaves people feeling unappreciated, aimless and discouraged.

Servant leadership means putting people first and one of the ways a healthy board can do that is to provide opportunities for people to develop and optimize their God-given gifts. 

In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) Jesus warns against laziness.The servants who invested and grew their talents were rewarded, while the one who buried his talent was rebuked. 

Boards should position people for success by asking them to do and build on what they do best. As we invest in the gifts of our teams, we can expect to watch their confidence grow. Capitalizing on the strengths each team member has been blessed with will increase effectiveness and confidence individually and organizationally.

As servant leaders we must not expect healthy organizations without providing leadership development..

You can run an organization without investing in your team's development, but eventually some or all will experience burnout and the mission will suffer.You may have saved money and time but the cost you end up paying is much greater than any budget line item can reflect.

It all comes back to stewardship.

As a Board of Directors you’ve been given a team of people to steward by God. 

At your next Board Meeting I challenge you to ask your Executive Director and fellow board members these questions:

How are we doing with professional development and support for our own leadership team (Board, Executive Director) and for the rest of our staff? Does everyone have the training and support to grow and develop more knowledge and skills and become even better laborers in the vineyard of the Lord? If more attention is due to this aspect of Nurturing, how will you move forward to rectify what’s missing? What specific steps will you take to Nuture your team through professional development?

Heartbeat has training and professional development for everyone from Board members to client advocates, Executive Directors, nurses and everyone in between. It’s affordable, Christ-centered and designed specifically for pregnancy help organizations (PHO). It’s taught, written or facilitated by people who have been in PHOs for years, often decades. So please take advantage of the resources and training we offer.  It’s our honor to help you steward your team’s development.

Link to List of Practical Ways to Nurture:  

https://www.heartbeatservices.org/6th-major-responsibility-of-the-board-nurture